Albert C. Barnes and Violette de Mazia The Art of Henri-Matisse Manuscripts,
circa 1931-1932

A Guide

The Barnes Foundation Archives

300 North Latch's Lane
Merion, PA, 19066
Fax: 610-664-4026
Email: archives@barnesfoundation.org

Funding provided by the
National Endowment for the Humanities
and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

[c] 2006 The Barnes Foundation

Collection Summary
Repository:	The Barnes Foundation
Creator:	Albert C. (Coombs) Barnes, 1872–1951 Violette de Mazia, 1899-1988
Title:	Albert C. Barnes and Violette de Mazia The Art of Henri-Matisse Manuscripts
Dates:	circa 1931–1932
Extent:	6 linear feet
Abstract:	This collection consists of background materials and drafts in manuscript, typescript, and carbon copy form, as well as galley proofs and page proofs for The Art of Henri-Matisse by Albert C. Barnes and Violette de Mazia.
Code:	AHM
Language:	The majority of this collection is in English. Some material is in shorthand.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Description of item], [date]. Albert C. Barnes and Violette de Mazia The Art of Henri-Matisse Manuscripts.The Barnes Foundation Archives, Merion, Pennsylvania. Reprinted with permission.

Acquisition Information

These records were part of a writings file housed in the Barnes Foundation’s administration building storage area.

Processed By

Adrienne Pruitt. Finding aid written by Adrienne Pruitt, September 2006.

Access Restrictions

The Barnes Foundation Archives is currently closed for research while staff complete grant-funded projects to process the collection. Please contact the Archives for information on access and research.

Use Restrictions

The Barnes Foundation’s writings files are the physical property of the Barnes Foundation Archives. The Foundation holds literary rights only for material created by staff of the Foundation and material given to the Foundation with such rights specifically assigned. For all other material, literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. Researchers are responsible for determining the identity of rights holders and obtaining their permission for publication and for other purposes where stated.

Related Material

Historical Note

Dr. Albert C. Barnes established the Barnes Foundation in 1922 to “promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts.” Following his successful collaboration with Foundation teacher Violette de Mazia on The French Primitives and Their Forms from Their Origin to the End of the Fifteenth Century (1931), Dr. Barnes embarked on a project dear to his heart: “a comprehensive investigation” of Matisse, whom he regarded as “the foremost painter of the day.” Barnes first met Matisse in 1930, when the artist asked to visit the Foundation during a trip to the United States. During his visit, Dr. Barnes proposed that Matisse create a mural for the Main Gallery. By December of that year a contract had been signed for the work that would be The Dance mural. Dr. Barnes was eager to include a reproduction and an analysis of the mural in his book, but in early 1932 it was discovered that Matisse had been working from mistaken measurements and therefore work on the mural was delayed. Disappointed, but determined to publish the book as soon as possible, Barnes and de Mazia continued writing, including only a brief reference to The Dance in the biographical essay on Matisse.

The authors had a massive amount of information to organize, having generated over a thousand pages of notes during their 1931 research trip to France. Several Foundation staff members assisted them: Laura V. Geiger and Mary Mullen took dictation in shorthand, typed up notes and drafts, and edited punctuation and grammar, while Nelle E. Mullen compiled catalogue data, obtained reproduction rights for the illustrations, and oversaw all of the administrative and business details of publishing. Foundation teacher Edward T. Dreibelbies helped to verify catalogue data, and longtime Foundation associate Laurence Buermeyer refined the text where necessary. Barnes was also careful to acknowledge coauthor Violette de Mazia’s contribution to the book. He insisted that the publisher add her biographical information to the book jacket, declaring “the detail work which puts guts into the skeleton is ten times more her doing than mine.”

The majority of the manuscript was written at Brides-les-Bains, a resort town in the French Alps. In July 1932 Dr. Barnes wrote to his publisher describing their writing schedule: “We expect to stay here for three weeks and plug away on the manuscript. Incidentally, in the mornings we walk three miles to a swimming pool of warm, alkaline spring water, spend about half an hour in the water and get back to work by about ten-thirty. The rest of the day and usually up until ten or eleven o’clock at night we are working on the book.” With such grueling work habits, the authors managed to complete the book in late summer of 1932, and it was published on January 13, 1933.

The Art of Henri-Matisse is a case study in which Barnes and de Mazia apply their method of objective, verifiable, scientific analysis of artworks to the oeuvre of a living painter whom Barnes greatly admired. The book was dedicated to Leo Stein, from whom Dr. Barnes had acquired his first two Matisse paintings in 1912, and who, Barnes wrote, “was the first to recognize the genius of Matisse.” The writing displays Barnes’s signature interest in psychology, with chapters on “The Psychology of Matisse” and on “transferred values.” A chapter comparing Matisse and Stravinsky grew out of lectures given by Barnes at the Foundation and further develops his longstanding interest in the interrelationships between music and art. Although Dr. Barnes was satisfied with the text, he feared it was “too meaty and too scientific to be a popular book,” and his concerns proved to be well-founded. The book was not a critical success and sold slowly. The authors were untroubled by the book’s lack of acclaim. Barnes wrote to Henry Hart, “I am sure the book will live, and I am equally sure the world is not yet ready for that kind of study. That the time will arrive when both these factors will come into their own is not more doubtful than that the sun will rise again.”

Scope and Content

This collection consists of background materials, drafts, and proofs for The Art of Henri-Matisse by Albert C. Barnes and Violette de Mazia. Background materials include extensive notes dictated by Barnes and de Mazia at the 1931 exhibition Henri-Matisse: exposition organisée au profit de l’Orphelinat des arts at Galerie Georges Petit in Paris, copies of letters from Barnes to John Dewey regarding Matisse, and notes on lectures given by Barnes in the Barnes Foundation Gallery comparing Henri Matisse and Igor Stravinsky. Shorthand transcriptions of a lecture by Barnes on Renoir and of a lecture by John Dewey on “Expression and Expression in Art” can also be found in the notebooks of background material.

Drafts of The Art of Henri-Matisse are in manuscript, typescript, and carbon copy form. There are few extant drafts, perhaps because the book was written in just over a year, and perhaps because, as notes written on surviving drafts suggest, unsuccessful or unnecessary drafts were deliberately destroyed by the authors. Catalogue data compiled by Nelle E. Mullen, Violette de Mazia, and Edward T. Dreibelbies is documented by a significant amount of correspondence with collectors, gallery owners, museum staff, and Matisse family members. This correspondence pertains to Matisse’s biographical information and painting history and contains details of provenance. Also of interest in the final notes and indices are manuscript notes regarding a palette of Matisse’s owned by de Mazia, and several lists describing Matisse paintings hanging in the Barnes Foundation. Corrected page proofs and galley proofs complete the collection.

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Inventory

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.